Govt urged to keep ‘borders, check gates’ sealed post lockdown

ITANAGAR, Apr 7: The Students’ Union Movement of All Arunachal (SUMAA) has requested the state government to keep all “borders and check gates” of the state completely sealed, and to “ban entry of outsiders” after the completion of the nationwide 21-day lockdown.
In a press release, the organization on Tuesday called for sealing the check gates as states like Telangana, Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and others are seeing a continuous rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases.
It called for exempting vehicles carrying essential commodities, but after taking
preventive measures, such as conducting medical checkups of those entering the state.
The organization suggested converting schools, colleges, IBs, guest houses, tourist lodges and government establishment buildings across the state into temporary rooms and camps for frontline workers like doctors, nurses, administrative officers and police forces, with all basic facilities in place.
Besides requesting the government to make consumer goods and personal protection equipment available to the public and the frontline workers, it advocated “procurement or conversion of laboratories and testing centres in the state for fast and multiple tests.”
Setting up quarantine centres with an intake capacity of 500 to 600 at a time in isolated places, such as near railway stations, grounds, check gates, helipads, etc, in all the districts was also proposed by the organization.
It meanwhile urged MoS Kiren Rijiju to extend all possible help to the people and students of Arunachal who are stranded in various parts of the country.
“We urge Rijiju to come forward in this tough time through his various sources to reach out to the people of the state and the Northeast,” the SUMAA said.
Stating that it has “full hope and faith with the arrangement of the state government,” the organization said it is ready to come forward with assistance, if the situation demands it, to fight against Covid-19.